A NOT UNUSUAL OCCURRENCE

I was at a dinner last night here in MetroParkCentralis and one of the comments heard across the table was that the NRA were a bunch of hypocrites which is just exactly what one would expect of rethuglican mouth breathers and wife beaters. The claim was asserted that the annual NRA convention forbade the possession, in their convention, of operational firearms because snarly despicable hypocrites.

I followed up this morning and see that yes, the NRA is having its annual convention and it is in Nashville and yes, one of the venues does not allow firearms. That's because it is a fire arms free place and always has been. The actual convention venue says, no no, just bring your guns and please don't shoot anybody. Just obey the laws of the State and the city and have a valid Tennessee permit if you carry.

I'm guilty of inductive reasoning. I try very hard not to be but sometimes one leaps to conclusions because they're the obvious thing one expects of 'those guys'. I admit that these days I mostly do that with arabs and muslims. Yes, I am inclined to expect the worst from both of those groups. I don't know why. I just wonder at people who leap to those conclusions in areas where the history has never supported any basis for electrocuting the 'other' guy. 

I get a real kick out of people who slang at the rethuglicans. I don't like them myself but at least I recall who they are. They are the party of Lincoln and they were the ones that fought slavery to a near standstill here in America. What did the NRA ever do to them, theirs or them like them? It's an organization, like the ACLU, dedicated to supporting one of the amendments in our Bill of Rights. How could that possibly be bad? Yes, I've seen all the movies over the years where Hollywood actors spew passionately about 'taking the guns.' That's OK. That's another one of those amendments in the Bill of Rights, free speech.

Hypocrites in that crowd who denounce your right to own or carry a weapon also have armed body guards who go everywhere with them. It's OK for them, but not for you. 

I dig guns. I have since I was 10 years old and we could go to the indoor firing range at Fort Riley as Boy Scouts, sign for a 22 cal rifle and shoot a box of bullets at targets before returning the guns to the small in-house armory. It wasn't like later when every time I shot an M16 there was some jerk demanding that I not only clean it but polish it and wax it and shine it before returning it to the Marine armory we borrowed them from.

I have never really understood the animus against guns. It's stupid, liberal, progressive and reflexive. If everybody carried a gun you would never again see a massacre because the rest of us would pull out our gun aim and fire. It's only when a 'lone gunman' has a gun that we see tragedies beyond grief. Those without weapons are massacred and idiots fools and progressives blame the gun.

All that said and I have never really even considered getting a license to carry. I don't carry. Girls can do it pretty easily. Put it in a purse and keep on walking. When I did carry weapons while in uniform it was a pain in the ass. I did counter-terrorism and counter-surveillance and security. I'm going to stick with situational awareness and head on a swivel and absolutely not going where the thugs are. No real need to carry a gun.

I heard this morning on the way to Case that those who were killed and wounded by Major Nidal Hassan have been legally awarded the purple hearts that they deserved. That's the thing about legal carry. Even if every victim had a Texas permit, they still would have been compelled, by law, to leave their guns at home because guns are not allowed on any military installation. You can't even, legally, have them in your car out in the parking lot.

I drove to a place well south of here a few years ago with a pair of WWI rifles and a Boer War era rifle in the back. No ammo at all but still, fire arms. I dutifully and damned carefully checked the laws of all the states I drove through to ensure I didn't go to jail for the rest of my life for transporting weapons. I would not, for instance have driven them to Maine because the only way to get there from here is through New York and I'm not stupid enough to expose myself to New York's laws on weapons. Frankly, I'd rather drive one over the border into Mexico than tangle with the morass of New York. The rifles were a legacy that were being passed to their new custodian. He treasures antiques like that. 

It's an odd sort of rainy day here in MetroParkCentralis. I was hoping for weather.